Tuesday, December 7, 2010

East Nashville Santa Visit 2010

Saturday morning we went to the Christmas in the East Festival at ArtHouse Gardens (our neighborhood plant nursery). We kind of went last year, we got there at the last second and drug Santa out of his pick up truck. This year we skipped the Santa-fest at our church (that was the worst Santa ever last year) and spent the morning in East Nashville instead. Before Santa arrived there was a little parade and some carolers, and then Santa! It was actually the same Santa as last year which was really cool and maybe we can get Lilli's picture with him for years to come!Lilli is in LOVE with Santa. We talk and wave at the ones in the neighborhood all the time and she had already gotten to see a live one the night before at the Nashville Christmas parade. All the older kids squealed when he came out, and I heard her give a little squeal and start waving at him, too.There were a lot of families there, I think he said they had about 70 families total when we went back later that night to buy our Christmas tree. But, we were on the wrong side of the assembly when it was time to line up for Santa!!Lilli did not want to wait her turn, she kept pulling me around and trying to skip, and the closer we got in line the more she was pulling. When we were next I had to hold her arm to keep her from running up there while the girl ahead of her was talking to him.When it was her turn I just let her go and she ran up to him as fast as she could! I had been so worried she'd be scared or shy around him and that was for sure not a problem.Once she got there she wasn't quite sure what she should do though!I just wish someone had told me to pull her pants leg down!I still couldn't really get her to smile and in these situations you don't really have a lot of time or space to dance around, but I still think they're cute and much better than last year's parking lot shot or the church fake Santa shot! The official photo taker had a small point and shoot camera, so these are all from Brent's camera. The photos were free with donations to our neighborhood food bank.One happy little girl who just got to visit with Santa (still with that pants leg!!) I tried to get her to tell him something she wanted for Christmas but she doesn't understand that yet and just told him something about her boots. This was the first time we'd been successful in getting her to wear boots, so it was a pretty major deal and I guess Santa news-worthy!It was a great little Santa visit and we'll for sure go back next year. We actually saw two of the other little girls she goes to daycare with there, too! She got so excited to see her little friends outside of school.